The fire cast shadows across the study as she padded from her desk to the place where he sat on the floor. At her approach he opened the blanket he was wrapped in and she settled into his embrace - taking a moment of rub her naked body along his, hearing the low growl of appreciation in his throat as flesh ran over equally bare flesh.

"You sure about this?" she asked, handing him the remaining photographs – watching the way his thumb stroked over the top one.

"Its what we agreed,"

"That wasn't what I asked."

She looked over her shoulder at him, seeing how torn he was and her fingers clasped his wrist.

"If you promise to keep it somewhere safe – I think you can save one."

She looked down at the person she'd been ten years ago – trying to hold back the pang of regret at the knowledge that her life wasn't so simple anymore. Wishing she could have kept all of them and said to hell with the risk. But that wasn't who she was.

"Jen .." he pressed a soft kiss to her shoulder, "it's all right."

The way his lips lingered against her skin, the way his hand trailed down her side told her that this might turn out to be a short interlude between other more rewarding activities. Suddenly decisive she drew the photograph from the pile and dropped it to the ground, flicking through the remaining images she removed one of the last ones they'd taken. The blurry images making it impossible to identify anyone, but she knew that he'd been buried deep inside her when it had been taken and that they'd both been impossibly turned on by taking a photograph while making love.

She looked up at him, saw the way a smile tugged at his lips before he took the remaining photographs from her hand and dropped them into the flames. She blinked back tears, feeling ridiculous at being so emotional over something so trivial. Until she felt him tighten his hold on her – and knew that somehow it had got to him as well.

"Let's go back to bed," she said – not wanting to sit here with him and watch the past turn to ashes.

But he slid the blanket away and pushed her down on to the rug in front of the fireplace.

"Let's not."

--

The sound of his cell phone ringing woke him. Without thinking he reached towards the nightstand, only to have his movement obstructed by the warm body curled around his. Carefully he manoeuvred out of bed, realising that the phone was still in his pants – which were in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the bed. He checked the caller id, suspecting he was being called out on a case, surprised when he saw whose name came up.

"Abby, is everything OK?"

"Gibbs – sorry, did I wake you? I didn't think you slept, well, obviously you must sleep sometimes, I wanted to thank you – for trying to help me find a present for Tim."

For a moment he couldn't remember what she was talking about – his gaze drawn to Jen shifting into the space he had been lying in, then opening her eyes when she realised he wasn't there. She pushed her tousled hair out of her face and looked around the room; and even in the dim light he could see her smile when she realised he hadn't left.

"Gibbs – you still there?"

"I found the stamp – if you still want it."

"You did?" He could hear the giddy excitement in her voice as he slipped back into bed, pulling Jen into his side. "Gibbs you're the best!"

"At some things," a low voice murmured in his other ear – hopefully quiet enough not to be picked up by Abby.

"I'll bring it in for you tomorrow."

"Have you been going through old stuff all this time?"

"More or less."

"Find anything as valuable as the stamp?"

"Something I thought I'd lost."

He could almost hear Abby's brain ticking over on that one, and before she could get around to demanding details he said, "good night Abs," and closed the phone.

He pressed a kiss to Jen's head where it rested on his chest.

"It wasn't lost. Turns out I was just looking in the wrong place."

He felt her smile against his skin.